I have a friend in California who is a real chef. She's a dear, and a hard
worker. They are retired now, and her kitchen is like on TV. Viking,
Dacor, Wolf, you know. BUT THE WOMAN CAN COOK.

Coming from a medical career, she also is very conscious of fats and
cholesterol and everything else that tastes good, sometimes being annoying.
We go visit them a couple of weeks a year, and it is like going to a resort.
Playing golf, eating good on the hilltop patio, driving around in a Ferrari,
Maserati, or Porsche.

I come home and have this thing that I'm going to eat healthier, and learn
to cook like her. Lots of her stuff is very simple, but tasty beyond
description. Lots of it is Italian or European in nature, as they traveled
there a lot.

Are there some starter cookbooks and ways I can get headed in a new
direction away from pork chops and fried potatoes and gravy? I do cook lots
of more complicated stuff, but at times, I just have a mental block when
thinking of what to prepare for dinner, and grab what's easy and I know.

Maybe I'll ask for a particular cookbook this Christmas. Which one?

Steve